Crossroads Of Health

"Where Common sense and good science intersect"

Rick Simpson started in
the health food industry in 1983 and is largely self-taught by people he has
worked for and people he currently works with. Rick started working for
Mrs. Gooch's Natural Ranch Markets (a large health food chain in Southern California
that has since been purchased by Whole Foods) in 1983 and quickly rose through
their ranks because of his dedication to the stores success.

Rick
left Mrs. Gooch's in 1987 and then went to work for a vegetarian restaurant for
a short time before traveling across the country for a period of time.
Upon his return, Rick went to work for an integrative medical clinic in
Torrance, CA. It was here that Rick was trained by the owner, a Ph.D.
Biochemist and also learned the "manufacturing processes" for the
production of encapsulated nutritional products. The Ph. D. Biochemist
that he worked for had started manufacturing his own products and Rick largely
ran the production part of the doctor's business. In 1993, Rick left the
integrative medical practice in order to start his own nutritional consulting
business. Even though Rick greatly enjoyed doing the nutritional
consulting, he decided to pursue manufacturing of nutritional supplements in
1996. This was the beginning of Rick's experience as a "business
owner" and he really enjoyed being able to "put into practice"
all he had learned about manufacturing in his own business.

Rick
then decided to start his own line of supplements in 2001 when he purchased the
rights to one of the companies he had manufactured for...this company was
Emerald Laboratories. It really had been Rick's dream to be able to
manufacture his own line of products in his own manufacturing facility and that
dream was realized in 2001 when he started to sell to health food stores with
the Emerald Laboratories Line...this company is now called Ultra Laboratories.

Today,
Rick works with top-notch people like Dr. Mark Stengler and many of the
executives at his manufacturing plant. Rick's manufacturing plant is cGMP
Certified and also has an "in-house" lab where all ingredients are
tested for identity, strength, purity and composition. Rick personally
consumes over one hundred nutritional supplements per day in his quest for
"optimal health" and is thrilled to be able to control the quality of
the products he consumes by manufacturing them in his own facility.

Melody Martorana has enjoyed being part
of the Wellness Industry for over 10 years. She started out as the National
Sales Manager of a supplement company that Rick Simpson manufactured
additive-free products for at the time. In her 6 years there, she was
surrounded by highly educated mentors that shared with her their wealth of
knowledge about nutritional science and the benefits of additive-free
formulations. It was in this world that
she found fulfillment in the opportunity to truly help others. Coming
from outside of the industry, she had taken supplements all of her life but
never fully understood the impact that choosing the right forms of nutrients
could have…and she realized that most people outside of the Wellness Industry
were also “in the dark”. Now armed with this
knowledge she became passionate about sharing it with others so that they too
could make educated decisions and truly life-altering changes to better their
wellness.

As she
developed into an educator, she also pursued more knowledge with which to help
others and became a licensed Esthetician.

In 2009, she
went to work for the “source” and became a part of the Ultra Laboratories
team. By working on site where the
actual manufacturing facility produced the products, she developed an even
deeper understanding of what it truly meant to produce “quality” supplements. As a result of their shared vision, Melody works
closely with Rick Simpson in the position of Executive Director.

She loves the
opportunity to travel and train store employees as much as she loves talking to
people who call in from all over the country. She finds extreme
gratification in the opportunity to help “turn the light on” for those looking
for answers and seeking direction in their quest for better health.

Copyright 2013

* Statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Content is for educational purposes solely and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.